Defend Public Healthcare

For the fourth consecutive year in a row, wage settlements in the broader provincial public sector (covering public sector workers who do not work for federal or municipal governments) fell below the wage settlements in the private sector.   In 2013, provincial public sector wage settlements averaged about 0.3% annually compared to a private sector settlement average of 2.3% according to Ministry of Labour data .   That is a whopping 2 percent gap.    In 2010 the gap was small, as provincial public sector settlements came in at just under 2% and private sector settlements came in at just over 2%.  With provincial public sector settlements trending downward since 2010 (1.4% in 2011, 1.1% in 2012, and 0.3% in 2013) the gap with the private sector has grown.  Compared to inflation, provincial public sector settlements are far behind.                                        2010                  2011                  2012                   2013 P.S. Settlements            1.9%

The Ontario government has gotten into another donnybrook with private clinics for a second time in less than a year.   Over the summer, they got into a messy dispute with private physiotherapy clinics. The government stopped 94 physiotherapy clinics from directly billing OHIP. Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews said that, over the years, licences to provide these services have been bought up by large corporations.   Moreover, she charged, the " existing 94 clinics have had an unlimited ability to bill the government   and have become very creative in they way they bill." The government claimed that an audit of 15,000 records from the clinics found that 58% of them failed to support OHIP billings.  Five-minute exercise classes were sometimes billed as physiotherapy,  care plans did not measure up, record keeping was incomplete, and  physician referrals were sometimes lacking. “There is extraordinary growth in expenditures and the audit was one of those factors

While the Harper Conservative government has pushed ahead with its Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, the Ontario Liberal government has failed to protect public health care. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) protection for public health care was initially supposed to be provided through the Annex II Social Services Reservations.   Annex II protects social services “maintained for a public purpose”. Unfortunately, the meaning of “public purpose” is disputed and the provision may not provide protection where there is private sector involvement in health care.  To clarify that health services delivered as public services are excluded from NAFTA, the parties negotiated a general reservation in 1996.   This addition to NAFTA's Annex I meant that services provided by provinces since 1994 would be excluded from NAFTA liberalization. With CETA, however, general reservations like those seen in Annex I under NAFTA

Another LHIN-based  initiative to restructure   " non-urgent patient transfers"  is underway.  Non-urgent transfers are ambulance-like transfers for patients from hospital to hospital, from hospital to long-term care, or from hospital to home. While the cost of these transfers often simply come out of the hospital budget, austerity has made this more difficult.   The latest restructuring project is in the North East  -- and is funded by the North East LHIN. Earlier this year , the government strongly endorsed a LHIN-wide plan for the South West.   As in the South West LHIN, t he North East project is supposed to develop a standardized approach to the delivery of non-urgent transportation services throughout the LHIN.   While EMS had provided much of the inter-facility transfers in the past, over the last 14 years that has changed, after the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government introduced legislation in 2000 allowing hospitals to use for-profit

Below is the recent submission of OCHU to the Standing Committee on Social Policy of the Ontario Legislature: The Ontario Council of Hospital Workers (OCHU/CUPE) represents 30,000 hospital and long-term care workers in 65 hospitals across Ontario. We represent food service workers, maintenance workers, housekeepers, Registered Practical Nurses, Personal Support Workers, administrative and office workers, and many more classifications. When Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) were established, we feared that they would provide cover for the government as they proceeded to regionalize, centralize, privatize, and cut health care services. Unfortunately, this has proven accurate. A number of problems have arisen with the LHINs, but two stand out. First, they have been charged with centralizing, privatizing, and cutting local hospital services and, second, they have distanced elected government officials from decisions to reduce, privatize or centralize local health care ser

Despite the lack of universal public insurance, U.S. governments actually spend much more on health care than Canadian governments.   Public sector health expenditure in the U.S.A. accounts for 8.5% of the economy, 7.9% in Canada, and 6.8% through the OECD (the club of 34 rich nations –  which, unlike the U.S.A., primarily finance health care through the public sector).   Indeed, the U.S. public sector spends more per capita on health care than any other OECD nation except Norway – $4066 per capita (in 2011).   The universal Canadian system spends $3183, while the OECD average is $2,499.   The main feature of the US system that distinguishes it from the systems in other developed countries is that it is highly privatized.   Moreover, it's not that the U.S. hasn't quite got privatization right:   basic problems remain despite multiple reforms to private health care. As the U.S.A. is the leading model of private health care provision, why would any jurisdic

CUPE encourages health care workers to get an influenza vaccination if they can safely do so.   But making flu shots mandatory for health care workers is a serious intrusion on the freedom and personal autonomy of health care workers that may sometimes have detrimental effects on their own health.    Forcing people to take flu shots against their will may well undermine public confidence in vaccination programs, even vaccination programs with an excellent results and high safety standards.   Employers do not provide any sick leave to half of CUPE hospital workers.   So when those workers have an adverse reaction to the vaccination, they will lose pay.   Even those workers who do qualify for sick leave may be harassed by employers if they take days off as, under austerity, hospitals are increasingly driven by cost cutting and are sharply targeting sick leave for reduction. But, along with increased attacks on sick leave, some health care employers are demanding that he